Love Child
by kittie reviewer
Summary: Summary – Kairi knew that she shouldn't have done it, but she did it anyway. Roxas knew that he was never supposed to exist, but did that mean he couldn't be loved. NOT Kairi/Roxas. AU Parings are Sora/Kairi and Roxas/Xion
1. The Mistake

The Mistake

* * *

Fourteen year old Kairi was a good girl. She always did what her parents said, went to church every Sunday, and even got good grades in school. She was an only child, but still loved her parents, and she had the greatest friends. Her life was perfect; but that all got shattered with one mistake …

"Hello Kairi, come on in," Riku invited his girlfriend into his house.

"Hi Riku," Kairi greeted him with a smile stepping into the house.

Riku couldn't help but smile at how cute she looked, wearing a mini skirt and tube top, and her hair was curled in a very school girlish way, "Did you bring the movie," he asked.

"Yep, Terminator," she held up the DVD case. Riku wasn't the kind of boyfriend that would watch sappy love story's with his girlfriend, but Kairi didn't mind.

"Where's your mom?" Kairi asked.

"She and dad are out to dinner with my sister, that's not a problem is it?" Riku asked when he saw her nervous look.

"Um … no- no it's fine," she replied hoping that she wouldn't regret that.

"Great you go set up the movie, and I'll get the popcorn ready."

* * *

"_I'll be back_!" Arnold Schwarzenegger's thick Austrian accent could be heard through the room. Kairi couldn't help but roll her eyes, how many times had she heard that line. The Terminator was Riku and his friend's favorite movie; they always watched it over and over again, alone with quoting the movie.

Riku then pulled that unbelievably cliché move. He lifted his arms in the air in a stretch then unhesitantly wrapped one arm around her shoulders. Kairi just smiled mischievously; instantly recognizing the oldest movie in the book. She turned to her boyfriend and pressed there lips together. Riku responded, by slipping his tongue into her mouth. She always had the miraculous taste of strawberries, that made him just want to eat her up.

Kairi moaned into Riku's mouth when she felt his hand slide down her figure, she had the sudden urge to do something she knew she would regret later if she did. Riku had the same urge and they both gave in. Riku broke there kiss just long enough to kick his door shut …

* * *

"_What. Have. I. Done_?"

Kairi sat on her bed, curled up in a ball. Completely horrified at what she gave into, she had lost something that could never be found again. How could she have done that, she was a good girl, and good girls don't do what she did. What she did was reserved for marriage, and only marriage. This only meant one thing. She was no longer a good girl. She had lost the one thing that still made her innocent, and the worst part of it was that it wasn't stolen from her.

She gave it away.

_I should have stopped it before it got that far. Why didn't I do it, I was so stupid._ Kairi shifted to lie down on the bed, tears leaking from her eyes, "Kairi are you all right in there?"

That was her mom, what would she think of me if she found out. Would she understand, would her family be able to look at her the same way? Would she be able to look at herself the same way.

"I'm fine … just need to be alone for a while."

The next day at school Kairi did everything in her power to avoid Riku. It wasn't too hard, because they only had one class together. And during that class she just strayed from her usual chair next to her boyfriend and sat next with her other friend Sora. He kept trying to catch her in the hallway but anytime he got close she just turned her heels and went the other direction.

"Are you guys having a fight?" Sora asked after a while.

Sora was her best friend that she had known since they were in diapers. He was like a brother to her, always a listening ear, and there to cry to in your time of need. The friend that can get away with telling you the hard truth, because you know that they're only doing it because they care; but there is no way she could tell him this.

"Maybe a little one," she replied with a smile.

"Do you want to talk about?" he asked.

Just like Sora, he always knew when I was upset, but he could never know about this, "Thanks Sora, but I'm ok."

The greatest thing about having Sora as a friend was that he didn't make you talk if you didn't want to. He just smiled at her, "Ok, but if you want to talk about it, I'm right here."

"I know that Sora, thanks."

Sora left to go to his biology class, and Kairi went to her locker to get her history books. Just as she was grabbing them, someone called her name, "Kairi!"

Oh no, why wouldn't he just leave her alone. She quickly slammed the locker shut and took off in the other direction. Even though it was the long way to he next class, just as long as she avoided Riku, "Kairi! Kairi please just stop and talk to me, what did I do to make you so upset?"

The girl slowed down to a stop, and for the first time that day, she turned to look at her boyfriend. He looked upset and dejected, which made her feel all the more worse. She knew that she couldn't blame him for what happened. It wasn't necessarily his fault, he didn't rape her, and she agreed to do it just by letting it happen.

When Riku finally caught up to her, the final period bell rang. But instead of the two of them rushing off to class, Riku gently gabbed her by the arm and pulled her into an empty hallway, "Is this about what happened the other night?"

Kairi slowly nodded her head without looking at him. She heard him sigh in frustration, "Kairi there's nothing wrong with what we did, seriously get with this century everyone does it."

"But I know that it's not right, it's supposed to be done after marriage," tears started to fall from Kairi's blue eyes.

Riku brushed his hand over the girls cheek, which Kairi turned her head away from it, "It's not the end of the world Kairi, and I don't regret doing it."

Kairi locked eyes with him, "Well, I do."

"Well then let's just pretend that it never happened," Riku suggested.

"It doesn't work like that Riku!" Kairi cried suddenly becoming angry at him for the way he was just brushing it off. "That's not going to get my virginity back," she added in a softer voice.

The silvered haired boy brushed Kairi's tears away and kissed the top of her forehead, "Maybe not, but no one else has to know that you lost it. Just pretend that it didn't happen and no one will know."

"Can it really be that easy Riku?" Kairi asked.

Don't worry by next week, you'll have completely forgotten about it."

* * *

**Disclaimer, I don't own Kingdom Hearts**

**So here's chapter one, normally I hate AU's and especially Highschool stories though I got this idea too long ago and it really isnt a typical Highschool Drama story. This story's going to take many unexpected turns so it may not be worth it to guess, because you'll most likely be wrong, though going by the title of the story I'm sure you all know whats going to happen to Kairi. Special thanks to everyone who's been encouraging to finally getting this story out there.**


	2. The Consequence

The Consequence

* * *

The days went by and Kairi's life got back to normal. She didn't tell a single other soul about what happened that night not even Sora, and as far and Riku and her were concerned it never happened. Though the two of them were a bit more careful when they were alone together, to make sure it didn't happen again.

Just when Kairi was thinking that she never needed to think about it again, something happened that she should have expected but was surprised anyway. She started getting morning sickness. Kairi wasn't an idiot, she put two and two together and knew what the result was. But she had to make sure anyway.

There was no way that she would be caught dead buying a pregnancy test. She lived in the small town of Radiant Garden so everyone knew who she was. So there was only one way that she could get a hold of one. Going down the back alley of Main Street, was just another way of saying, your about to sell your soul. But she had to do it.

Walking down the unfamiliar pathway down the dark alley, she shivered unconsciously, looking very out of place in her bright colored clothing. Out of nowhere, a middle aged man with a shaggy beard, and bloodshot eyes put his face right next to hers, "What's a pretty little thang like you doing in this part of town?" he asked, with a wicked smile showing his mission teeth.

Kairi visibly grimaced, his breath smelt like a hogs privet part, after it played in the heat all day. "I- I have a proposition for you," Kairi said and held up a hundred dollar bill, "And I'll pay you handsomely for it."

The man stared at the bill with interest, "Keep talking."

Kairi held up a ten dollar bill, "You take this, and go and by a pregnancy test, keep the change and I'll give you this hundred dollars."

The man thought about the offer for a good long minute, then without warning he snatched the hundred out of her hand, "Hey wait!" Kairi shouted about to have a fit.

"Oh keep your pretty little head on," he said and held the bill up to the light, "Alright, I'll get your test," he agreed then suddenly smirked at her, "Looks like your in some trouble."

Kairi just blushed.

* * *

_59…60…1…2…3…4…5…6_

Oh why did two minutes have to be so slow? Kairi counted in her head, being careful not look at the test in her hand. _Please let it be negative, please let it be negative, _she thought over and over again, _36…37…38._ Twenty more seconds, she can make it through. _43…44…45…46…47…48… _Kairi closed her eyes as she counted the last ten seconds, it was almost time to find out if her life was over. _58…59…60…_

Very… very slowly she opened her blue eyes and moved her head to look down at the test. The world went into slow motion as the stick slipped from her fingers, falling to the floor, bouncing as it hit the ground. Kairi took two steps back, and sunk to the floor. The test had landed on the ground face up with the positive sign glaring at her. "My life is over," she whispered.

* * *

**Ok ok, I know its short. But I promise that the next one will be longer. I know because its already written. I won't make you wait as long as you did this one, because its so short. In fact if I get a good review turn out I might actually post it within the next few days. Oh and before I forget, special thanks to those of you that reviewed the first chapter.**


	3. The Result

The Result

* * *

She had to tell him. Kairi knew that. Would he be happy? Would he be angry? Would he support her in this? "Riku, I have to tell you something."

"Sure Kairi what is it," Riku asked as he closed his locker door.

Her eyes strayed towards his friends that were standing around waiting to hear what she had to say. Sora was also there, but she couldn't bear the thought of Sora knowing about this. What would he think of her, and she certainly couldn't say it with Riku's friends standing around listening, "In privet?"

Riku smiled in understanding, "Sure Kairi," then turned back to his friends, "You guys go ahead, I'll see you in class and tell the teacher that I'm on my way."

"Sure man, see ya later," of the guys said and they all turned around and left.

They stood there in silence waiting for the hallway to clear of all students. Kairi had suddenly found her shoes very interesting and refused to look at her boyfriend, "You're not breaking up with me right?" Riku asked with a trace of humor in his voice, not thinking that Kairi would do that to him. He was the heartbreaker here.

"No," the girl replied softly, "It's just … remember the thing that never happened?"

"Yeah," Riku answered with a hint of confusion as too why she's bringing it back up when they had been pretending that it never happened for weeks.

"We have a problem," she made sure to put in _we_ specifying that he was apart of it too and couldn't run away from it.

Riku wasn't dumb, he caught on rather quickly, "No Kairi please don't say it," there was now fear in his aqua colored eyes.

Kairi fished into her jacket pocket and pulled out the pregnancy test that still showed positive. Riku sighed and looked up at the ceiling in thought, "Well, we can still fix this, so that no one knows that this happened."

"How do we do that?" Kairi asked in hope.

"Just get an abortion."

Kairi's mouth dropped in outraged shock, "I will not. I have no right in ending some innocent child's life just because it's barely alive."

"Kairi it's an inch thick, no one will think any less of you, I sure won't."

"I can't live with it, and I won't."

The final bell suddenly rang, interrupting there discussion, "I'm sorry Kairi, but I can't deal with this. We're over," with that said the silver haired boy turned his heal and went into the other direction.

It was exactly what she feared, she yelled at his retreating back, "Don't you dare run away from this!" Riku didn't break stride nor turned around to reply, "ITS YOUR BABY TOO!"

That was the beginning of the end of Kairi's life.

"How could you have let this happen Kairi, you have disgraced the entire family," her mother's words pierced the girls heart. Her parents were not happy when there daughter finally broke down and told them about her mistake.

Unfortunately her parents only gave her two options, and both were bound to change her life forever, and not for the better, "Either get rid of it, or get out," her dad said.

Of course she would never get an abortion, which only left getting kicked out of her own home. Her parents would not have anything to do with her, she was thrown on the streets and all that she could keep were the clothes on her back and what ever was in her pockets, which was nothing.

Kairi tried to seek shelter with one of her friends, but even if they wanted to help her, all there mothers shut the door on her face. Word traveled fast in there small town, and what most didn't know was that what Kairi did in there town was a disgusting and unforgivable thing that was worth getting shunned for. Riku refused to admit that he was the father of Kairi's child, and said that she was lying. Considering the girls predicament it was obvious why they believed Riku over her.

Sora seemed the most understanding, and really wanted to let her come and live at his house. But his parents would never agree to that, but he gave her all the cash he had on hand. At one last attempt, she went to the father of her child's house. Maybe a guilt trip would set him strait.

_Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock._

She was met with the glare of Riku's mother, "What do you want slut?"

"Five minutes, I at least get that much time with the father of my child."

His mother scoffed at her, "My Riku would never be so reckless." There was a short uncomfortable silence, "Fine five minutes."

The older women closed the door and a moment later Riku opened it again and stepped out. After a short silence Kairi spoke, "This is your child too … you owe me," she said in a soft deadly voice, you could almost see the venom dripping from her lips.

"I have nothing to say to you," was all that Riku said before slamming the door in her face.

All Kairi wanted to do was to go as far away as possible now. She had no life left here. Knowing that Sora gave her the money to buy herself some food, she decided to use the money in a different way. She went to a taxi and gave him all the money that Sora gave her telling the driver to go as far away from here as it'll take her. Luckily Sora gave her about 200 dollars, he was also rich, and so the drive went on for hours. The driver finally stopped in a small town call Hallow Bastion, "All right this is your stop."

"Thank you," Kairi thanked and got out of the car.

Hallow Bastion was like the ghetto of Radiant Garden, or more like the opposite. Radiant Garden was full of rich families and privet schools, where this town had more poverty, with street scum walking alone everyday streets, and the closest privet school was an hour outside of town.

* * *

Kairi spent the next nine months of her pregnancy, living on the streets. She tried looking for a professional job, but no one would hire at her age. She eventually settled working for a family. She would do chores in there yard and they paid her a little money and meals. She found various shelters to sleep at night, no one in this place seemed to care that she was pregnant at fourteen, or that she didn't have a husband.

As her ninth month came, it was becoming hard to do work. This was when she started to get worried about taking care of a child, and even giving birth to one. She had not seen a doctor once her entire pregnancy, and knew for sure that there would be complications during labor, and how she would get to a hospital and everything.

She went into labor in the store, so someone called an ambulance. She surprisingly went through labor and gave birth without complications, which was a miracle in itself, "Would you like to see your son," the nurse asked Kairi holding the little baby in her arms.

Kairi reached her hands out for the child, and the nurse placed him in her arms. She looked down into the blue eyes of the baby, "My son, I'm so sorry you had to come into the world this way. I'm sorry that you have me as a mother. Though I may be a horrible mother, I love you, and I'll doing everything possible to make your life as good as possible." She told him, she started thinking about a name for him, and one suddenly popped into her head, "Roxas."

Kairi was never seen in Radiant Garden ever again. Her parents died in a car crash one week after she left, while they were out looking for her. The only other person that ever tried to find her for the next decade was Sora. But he never found a trace of her.

* * *

_Four__teen years later._

Fourteen year old Roxas was sitting in his algebra class, at the Hallow Bastion public high-school. The teacher was lecturing on letters and number, but the boy wasn't even paying attention. His mind drifting in and out, the only time he brought his mind back to reality was to glance at the clock to find out how much class time was left.

The students at HB High were all like what you'd normally find at a high school. All clicks, there were the brains, there were the jocks, there were the bully's, there were the kids you always saw outside the principal's office, there were the geeks, and the kids that were stuffed in lockers and bullied. Anyone not in those categories were considered the shadows of the school, meaning no one outside of the click really noticed them, though the bullies picked on everyone including them, just not at much.

At first glance you'd think that Roxas was just another shadow. He wasn't actively bullied, or in detention all the time. He wasn't one of the bullies, he wasn't a sports star, and he wasn't a geek. He was even known to have friendly conversations with some, he wasn't like the guy everyone thought was a piece of vermin and always avoided. What was different from him and the other shadows of the school was that he didn't have any friends. Now not having friends didn't mean that everyone hated him, Roxas had many acquaintances but none that he could call a friend. People would say hi to him while passing in the hallway, no one would shoo him away if he sat at there table at lunch. But no one would call him up after school or during the holidays to hang out or go to the movies. That's what friends would do.

What was really the thing that made Roxas so different was the fact that he was quite literally a bastard. Not meaning as an insult, but looking it up in the dictionary to find the definition that's what he was, or a kinder way of saying it, he was a love child. His mother was fourteen years older then him. You may think that that's a lot of years, but when every else's mothers are 25 to 30 years older then them, that isn't very much.

That was the thing that he was teased about the most from the bullies. He didn't get bullied that often because he was pretty good at just ignoring it, that is unless they started aiming at his mother. They could bash him all they wanted and he could easily turn the other cheek, but if they even said one inappropriate thing about his mother he would explode with angry. He had come home many times with bloody noses, black eyes, spit lips, and a couple time even a broken bone because he was defending is mother.

Now he wasn't jumping up to say that Kairi was the best mother ever, no there were many other mother's out there that were better then her; ones that didn't have you at 14 for example. They lived in a one bedroom very run down apartment in the ghettos of Hallow Bastion. Kairi worked full time at making minimum wage, with weekends off, but had so many unpaid bills, and paying the rent on the apartment so that they had a roof over there head plus Roxas's schooling; meant that here wasn't much of her paycheck left to pay for the needy things in life.

Never once was there refrigerator ever full, many times a week Roxas had to go without a meal of two, many times a month Roxas would go a whole day with out food. This left him looking rather thin and undernourished. But one thing that was different about Kairi then all the other mothers Roxas encountered in his lifetime was how hard she tried. As bad as Roxas looked, Kairi always looked worse if there was any time were there was only enough food for one, then his mom would give it to her son and go without, so she went without meals more often than Roxas. She gave Roxas the one bedroom in there apartment and slept on the couch in the main room. She did everything possible to give Roxas a good life. Roxas had always been able to recognize this and if make him respect his mother even more. This was Roxas's life.

* * *

"Kairi breaks over, get back to work!" the store manager barked to the 28 year old woman.

"Yes Mr. Robertson," Kairi replied and ran over to a nearby closed register. She took down the sign that said 'register closed' and logged onto the computer. "Next guest please!"

An elderly woman came up to the counter with an arm full of clothes. Kairi smiled at her, "Hello how are you doing today?" she asked robotically, and started taking the hangers off of the clothes and tossing them into the bin under the counter.

"Pretty well thanks, how are you doing?" the old woman asked.

"Fine thanks," Kairi replied automatically, as she started ringing up the shirts, "Did you find everything ok?"

"Yes I did," the woman replied.

Kairi finished ringing up all the clothes, folded them up, and placed them in a bag, "All right the total is $234.69."

The ageing lady ran her credit card through the slider. It took a minute for the transaction to go though, then two slips of paper came out. Kairi asked the woman to sign one of them and the woman signed it and took the receipt and the bag, "You have a nice day, thank you for shopping at Cators please come again." Kairi recited.

This was what she did twelve hours a day, five days a week. She had been doing this for years now, and it still wasn't enough to live life. Her friend that had been working at the clothing store with her since almost day one, and she knew that Kairi was a single parent, had been telling her for years to either get another job that pays more or get a second job. Unfortunately she had also been trying for years, but no one would hire her for part time, and she couldn't find another job that would pay her more than minimum wage.

At first glance you'd think that work was Kairi's life, but those that knew her, knew that her life revolved around one thing, and that was not her job. The thing or more like the person that revolved around Kairi's life was her son Roxas. Everything was about Roxas, he was the reason she had this job, he is the reason that she didn't commit suicide a long time ago.

Now you may think that this is normal for most parents would do anything for there kids, but one may argue that Kairi took it to an extreme rate. This was Kairi's life.

* * *

**So who saw that coming. **


	4. The Beginning

**Warnings - Very Heavy swearing in this chapter. If this offends you then be causious while reading this chapter.**

The Beginning

* * *

The snow fell steadily on that cold November morning. Roxas was wrapped up in a couple of thin blankets, which wasn't nearly warm enough for the cold winter. But it was all they had. He glanced over at the clock, it was almost six-thirty, and he knew that he should get up pretty soon. But the air outside the blankets was so cold, after a few minutes he bit the bullet and decided to brave the ice cold air. He wished there was enough money to afford a heater in the house, but if they could barely afford food then there was no way they could afford a heater.

He got dressed into his very thin and threadbare jeans and T-shirt. He took his jacket out of his closet and put it on, then fished through his top drawer for his benne and gloves. The apartment was cold and dark; his mom had left for work hours ago. There was just enough cereal and milk left for one person, and going by how there were no dishes in the sink Roxas knew that his mom had left all the breakfast for him and skipped herself.

There was a small sandwich in the refrigerator for his lunch, it wasn't big enough for a real lunch, but it was better then nothing. He poured out the rest of the cereal and milk into a bowl, and quickly ate it all. His stomach still growled in displeasure, when Roxas set the empty bowl into the sink, still not satisfied with the amount of food. But he knew that was all he could eat, if there was anything left to eat in the house, he should save it for another meal. It was now time to brave the cold winter snow, he slipped on his thin gloves, which had ripped seems and holes in the fingertips, then put the benne over his blonde spikes.

The air bit right through his thin jacket, but he was used to it by now. Roxas pulled it around himself tighter in hopes it would defend against the cold better. Every morning he took the same three mile walk from the apartment to his school. Out of nowhere something flew across the street and landed right at the boy's feet. He could hardly believe his site, low and behold right before him was a twenty dollar bill. Quickly he bent down and grabbed before it was able to blow away.

The blonde held it as if someone had just given him the keys to the world. He could barely remember the last time he held so much money at once. He glanced around to see if anyone was around that it could have belonged to, for his mom had always taught him to be honest, especially with money.

A soft smile painted the boys features when he realized that the street was deserted. It was as if some force beyond the earth had decided to take kindly upon him. His mother had told him many times that God did not exist and all the stories of him were fairy tales. So this force couldn't have been God, but someone must have been smiling on him. It was then that he realized that he was standing in front of none other than HB Coffee House. His mouth watered at the thought of a steaming cup of hot chocolate, and a warm sticky bun that he could buy and eat on his way to school. Glancing at his cheep watch, it was only seven fifteen, he had plenty of time to get to school.

But thinking again, she had just found 20 dollars. Getting all of that, would certainly use up every cent, he had eaten breakfast so he wasn't totally starving. He thought about it for a good two minutes, before walking into the coffee shop. He walked out of the shop several minutes later holding a small cup of hot chocolate, and 17 dollars still in his pocket.

He walked the rest of the way to school, thinking how to give the money to his mom. Knowing that she would never take any money offered to her by him, she was just say to keep it for himself, so he had to give it to her in a way that would make it seem like by her taking it would benefit him.

When Roxas arrived at his school, he was still fifteen minutes early for his first period class. He went to his locker to get his book, no one took any notice of him not that he was surprised. No one ever noticed him, not even the other shadows. School was just like any normal day for him. He went to all his classes and didn't talk to anyone, went to lunch and sat alone.

After lunch he was walking to English when he passed by a couple of guys attacking some girl. He didn't even know what her name was, so he just passed by like normal. This happened at least once a week, most people just passed by minding there own business. After school was let out he headed home. On his way home he always passed the local church, there seemed to be more activity going on today then usual.

He walked not really looking where he was going; this resulted in him colliding with someone that was walking by. He was thrown back but didn't fall over, though he heard a grunt meaning the person he ran into fall over, and also the sound of something crashing and stuff spilling out. When Roxas got his vision focused, he saw that he ran into a girl about his age, she looked vaguely familiar but he didn't know her name.

The girl was on her backside with a cardboard box lying by her feet with various toys lying around; "Oh I'm sorry," Roxas apologized reaching his hand out to help her to her feet.

"Thanks," she accepted the hand, and was pulled to her feet. After glancing around hopelessly at the items all over the sidewalk she bent down put the box right side up and began refilling it.

"Oh here let me help," Roxas volunteered while bending down next to her and helping to put the toys back into the box.

"Thanks," the girl replied.

"No problem, it was my fault anyway."

Once everything was back into the box, they got to there feet again, "What are you doing with all these toys?" Roxas asked.

"I'm just helping with the church garage sale for the needy. If you have any old toys or clothes to donate it would be helpful."

Roxas glared mildly at her in defense, "Old clothes, ha, if I had old clothes then I'd wear them."

The girl looked taken aback by his response, but still managed to smile kindly at him, "Oh ok, I was just asking."

"Xion!" someone from inside the church called before he could response.

She looked toward the direction of the voice briefly and called, "I'm coming," then turned back to him, "Well thanks again." With that she headed back into the church.

Xion … now he remembered where he had seen her. She went to his school, but she was one of the bible thumpers, which was a crude way of saying Christians. The bible thumpers in the school weren't considered shadows, but they weren't considered a normal click either. They were the one click that noticed the shadows of the school, and didn't bully them. And anyone that wanted to join there click of friends could if they wanted to, even if they weren't a bible thumper. They never pushed anybody away, though they were often persecuted by the rest of the school because of there religious views.

Kairi always told him that people that believed the bible were bad news, nothing but people who preached fairytales. She understood because she was once one of them, but had learned now. Roxas continued walking, not giving anymore thought to Xion or the other bible thumpers.

Once Kairi came home from work that day, she went rummaging through the pantry to see what she could whip up for dinner. She sighed regretfully at what she saw. There was nothing there but a half bottle of maple syrup, flower, barbeque sauce and vanilla. There was no way she could put any of those together and make a meal. She and Roxas would have to go without dinner again. At least there was only two more days until she'd get paid again.

There was a sudden knock on the front door. Kairi walked over to the door of the apartment and opened it. Who she saw there, was someone she'd never expect to see again.

"Well hello Kairi."

The woman sent a glare at the man standing at there doorstep, "I got to say, that you have been hard to find. But I knew you'd turn up sometime," the man said with a smirk.

"You sure got balls showing up here," Kairi said venom dripping from her words.

He smirked at her, "Aw, and here I thought you'd be thrilled to see me. Considering how you begged for me, the last time you saw me."

"You bastard, what the hell do you want!"

"I've just come to see how our child turned out," Riku replied quite casually.

"Like hell he's your child!"

"Oh so it was a boy, and yes he is my child want to check DNA."

Kairi's anger boiled over, she wanted to grab the sharpest knife and cut that smirk right off his face, "Get the hell out of here you asshole," she pushed the door shut, but it was blocked by Riku's foot.

"Now, now, there's nothing wrong with a father coming by to make sure his own son's getting taken care of."

"TAKEN CARE OF!" Kairi shouted her anger reaching its boiling point, "What do you think I've been doing for the past fourteen years."

"Well going by the place you live in, you haven't been taking very good care of our son."

Tears were threatening to fall from Kairi's eyes, but she wouldn't let them. She would not cry in front of this man, "BASTARD, how dare you! Do you have any idea, what sort of hell I've been through!"

She was now storming into the hallway outside of the door, Riku was pressed against the opposite wall, as Kairi continued to scream at him, "You can't just show up here, and expect to be welcomed! You come in here, wanting to see your son. Well guess what, he doesn't want to see you, your nothing to him!"

"I'm his father!"

"His father!" she let out a high forced laugh, "Alright _father_, where were you when I went into labor fourteen years ago. Where were you on his first birthday. Why was I the only one sitting by his bed after he got his tonsils taken out? Where were you when he won the 5th grade spelling bee. A father would have been there for all of that. YOU. ARE. NOT. HIS. FATHER. Now you get out of here and, if you dare show your face around here again I'll take a knife and make sure you can never have another child again!"

"All right, all right," Riku replied with surrender, "But this isn't over, I will have our child," another smirk showed on his face he didn't seem to be even looking at her anymore. "I guess I can give you some credit, he does look pretty good," with that Riku turned his heel and headed down the hall.

Kairi stared at his retreating back with confusion, then realization hit her. She swung around to the opposite end of the hall. Roxas was staring at her in shock, holding his backpack by one arm. She didn't know how much he witnessed but going by how his expression turned to anger, he had heard enough. "Roxas honey I'm sorry- Roxas!" she called out to him as he dropped the pack and ran out of the hall. Kairi couldn't take it anymore, she burst into tears.

Roxas ran from the apartment building, anger surging through his veins. It was a bad enough to walk into your mom cussing out your own father. What was worse was that he had finally seen the man that featured in his nightmares. The bastard that called himself his father, but never once did a thing to help him out. He was no father of his, and now he had seen him after so many years of picturing him as some sort of devil. Roxas felt nothing but hatred toward the man. He couldn't blame Kairi for what she said to him, but for some reason the sight of it all pissed him off to no end.

After running blindly, for God knows how long – no, no wait, there was no God, God wouldn't have done this to him, to his mom – Roxas didn't realize where he was heading till he heard the horn. His feet were rooted in the spot, and all he could do was stare at the car, heading toward him.

Blinding pain surged through his limbs; the next thing the blonde realized was the hard road underneath him. The pain started to dull, which meant that none of his bones broke; through bruises that's another story. "Oh God, kid are you ok?" he heard someone ask then felt the presence of someone kneeling at his side.

Roxas turned his eye's toward the source of the voice, he saw lush of color's swimming before him mostly red. He blinked a couple of times and the color's sorted out into a young man, most likely in early twenty's staring back at him. He had wild flaming red hair spiked out in all different directions, and two triangle shaped tattoo's under each emerald green eye. The blonde let one second go by to take in his appearance and realized that anyone that looked like this much be a rapist of some sort.

He quickly shot up into a sitting position but regretted the action by the way his limbs pieced with pain. He fell back and a loud groan escaped his lips, "Whoa easy there kid, are you hurt?" the man asked.

"No I'm fine," Roxas attempted to sit up again going slower this time and making it.

"Are you sure? Can you tell me what your name is?" the man asked.

"Roxas."

"Ok Roxas are you sure you feel alright?" he asked again sounding doubtful, "I can call 911-"

"No! No you don't need to I'm fine."

"Well let me at least take you home," The man offered.

"No that's ok, really," Roxas objected and was able to stand up, "See I'm fine, I'm ok walking home myself."

The Man was still looking skeptical. Roxas didn't want to give the man an option of making him go, he broke into a sprint. He could hear the man calling his name for him to stop, but he kept running, there was no way he would go with him. Home was the last place he wanted to be right now.

* * *

**For my fellow brother's and sister's in christ, don't be offended with the whole "Bible Thumper" thing. I don't mean anything about it, its just showing that, thats how people refer to us. I'm Christian myself so if I was trying to make fun of Christians then I'm making fun of myself. hehe**


	5. The Reassurance

**Warnings, mild swearing in this chaper**

The Reassurance

* * *

Roxas walked up the stairs slowly. He sat on a park bench for a few hours just thinking and trying not to freeze to death then decided to head home. But he was still terribly sore, and could feel the bruises forming on his chest. He sighed while approaching the door to their apartment; he could hear his mom in the kitchen clanking around the dishes. Would she be angry with him for running off? He opened the door and stepped in inside, shivering slightly as the change in temperature.

"Roxas!" Kairi cried and ran over to him, wrapping her arms around his figure, "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine," the boy replied softly.

He heard his mom sigh with relief, then step back grabbing his shoulders firmly and looking angry. "Don't you ever do that to me again!" she gave him a slight shake, "Do you have any idea how worried I was?"

Roxas winced at his mom's roughness, she caught it quickly and her anger turned to deep concern. "Honey what happened! Are you hurt?" she then gasped at noticing the dark bruise forming on his arm, then lifted his shirt then saw the damage of the hit all over his chest. "Oh my God! What happened?"

"Mom it's nothing, I'm fine," Roxas tried to pull away from his grasp.

"Were you attacked? Did someone mug you?" Kairi was now near hysterical; Roxas had never seen so much fear in her eyes before.

"NO! Its nothing like that, I told you that I'm fine!"

"That doesn't look like nothing!" the older woman pointed at his bruised chest, "Tell me what happened."

"I … I was, ok I was hit by a car."

For five seconds Roxas thought that his mom was going to either faint or have a heart attack. Kairi stepped back placing a hand over her heart and started gasping for breath, "Oh my God, a hit and run."

"No it wasn't, I just ran away; which proves that I'm totally fine."

"We should go to the hospital. You could be bleeding internally for all we know."

"No mom you can't afford that, I'm fine," this was exactly the reason why he didn't want to go home in the first place. He should have just stayed out longer.

"Your life's more important," Kairi left no room for argument, and grabbed her keys from the kitchen counter. "Let's go."

* * *

Riku was sitting in the front seat of his car, with a bottle of beer in his hand. He was now back in Radiant Garden, right in front of a house. He watched another car drive up and park. A young man got out and walked toward the house while looking at his keys, searching for the one that would unlock the front door, "Hello Sora," Riku greeted in a casual voice swirling around the beer in his bottle.

Sora froze briefly in surprise then turned to him. His eyes narrowed slightly but it didn't reach a full glare, "Hey Riku … hasn't seen you in a while."

The silver haired man smirked taking another swig of his beer before speaking, "I found Kairi," he stated deliberately not commenting on what the other man said.

Sora's eyes widened, "Kairi! She's not dead?"

"Nope …" Riku paused to take another sip, "She's been hiding out in Hallow Bastion all this time."

"Really," Sora looked very happy, "How did she look?"

Riku chuckled, "Are you kidding me, she's a dump. You should see where she lives."

"Why'd you even go find her?"

"Because I want my son, that's way. He deserves better then that bitch."

"Don't talk like that," Sora glared daggers at him, then headed back to his car.

"You're going to go see her?" Riku sounded unbelieving, "She didn't exactly give me a warm welcome, what makes you think she'll give you any better."

Sora turned back to glare at him again, "Because I didn't get her pregnant then abandoned her," he got into his car and drove away."

Riku just smirked and took another swig of his beer, "Just wait Kairi," he said to himself, "I'm going to get that boy."

* * *

It was snowing again. Maybe tomorrow the roads will be closed and school will be out, if the snow kept falling. But if the snow kept falling and school wasn't cancelled then it would be another cold walk, not that he wasn't used to it.

Roxas shifted slightly, trying to get more comfortable under the thin blankets. But it was just so cold. There trip to the hospital was pretty uneventful, aside from waiting for 3 hours in the emergency room then getting X-rays only to find then all clean. Though the bill his mom was sure to get for that pointless trip was sure to hurt them. Why couldn't she just accept the fact that he was ok when he told her? He shivered again, why did it have to be so freaking cold?

Morning seemed to come way too fast, and it seemed colder then the night before. Outside there seemed to be a new layer of snow on the ground, but still not be enough for a snow day at school. There was no food left in the house, at least not enough to make a meal. He and Kairi would have to go without food today, at least tomorrow was Friday, the day that his mom always got paid. But his stomach growled in protest, not happy at the thought of no food that day.

He still had that extra money he found yesterday, so he could buy a cheap lunch in the cafeteria. It would only be five bucks, and then he would still have twelve to give to his mom. Yes that sounded all right, twelve was plenty to give.

Roxas headed off to school, like normal. His stomach growled and rumbled all though his morning classes, upset that it got no breakfast. He kept whispering to it, "Don't worry you'll get food at lunch just hold out," getting a few odd looks when people overhead him. He sighed with relief upon entering the cafeteria, and smelling food. He waited in the long line and bought a pizza meal then sat down at an empty table. Usually when he sat a table by himself no one else bothered to sit there.

Xion walked into the lunch room with her friend Naminé, they were heading toward the table they normally sat at. Xion suddenly stopped, "What's up?" Naminé asked her curiously.

The black haired girl pointed to where Roxas was sitting, "He's sitting all by himself, let's go sit at that table."

"Ok," Naminé agreed quickly and the two girls walked over and sat at the table startling the only occupant.

"Hi Roxas," Kairi greeted, "This is my friend Naminé," the two girls sat down on the opposite side from where Roxas was sitting.

The boy gave them a look that said, 'What the hell are you doing sitting at my table' but didn't say it out loud. "It's nice to meet you Roxas," Naminé greeted extending a hand out to shake.

Roxas stared at her hand for a moment before cautiously accepting, giving her a dead fish handshake. The blonde girl didn't seem to mind, she smiled then turned to Xion and made conversation, "Did you see what Mr. Outland was wearing today?"

Xion immediately started laughing, "I did, and it should be a crime to wear that much orange. Did you see him, Roxas?"

The boy was startled at the fact that she spoke to him. He gave her another look that asked, 'Why are you talking to me?' But he did see what his science teacher wore that day, and couldn't help but smile. Someone suddenly sat next to him, "Hey girls what brings you over to this table," a guy Roxas has seen around but didn't know his name.

"Our new friend Roxas," Naminé replied pointing to Roxas.

The boy looked up in surprise, what did she mean friend? He had no friends; he didn't care how loving these bible thumpers were. No one could love him because he was a bastard.

"Hey Roxas, I'm Hayner," he greeted holding up his hand for a fist punch.

Roxas did it half heartedly. One by one every bible thumper in the school came to sit at his table. All because of these girls decided that they didn't want him to sit along. But truthfully he'd rather sit in a phone booth then be seen at the Christian table. How humiliating was this. And now they were trying to talk to him, he tried to aim a glare at the girls but they were in a conversation and didn't notice.

"I don't think we've met," a guy sitting on his other side asked.

He had yet to talk to anyone, because every time someone said something to him, it was either something that he could get away with not saying anything or it was a yes or not question. But this time no one was listening enough to bail him out, no he had to talk, "I'm Roxas," he replied flatly.

"I'm Tidus," the boy greeted, "Are you a freshman?"

Roxas just nodded, and Tidus continued trying to make conversation not seeming to care that he didn't seen interested in talking. Everyone else was talking about different things all through lunch. Finally the topic turned to Organization XIII his favorite band, "So Selphie are you going to the concert tomorrow?" Xion asked another girl that was sitting next to her.

"I really want to but I can't, my parents needs help moving grandma into the house," Selphie replied.

"I'm totally going," another guy added in, "I'm so excited!"

"It's going to be awesome!"

"Roxas, our church got a special group discount to see there concert, tomorrow night in Twilight Town. There are extra tickets left so you can come also. Only $10 when the tickets are 15," Xion said.

This was followed my many, "Yeah Roxas you should go," by the people at the table.

How great it would be to go to an Organization XIII concert, even if it was going with the bible thumpers. But even ten dollars was too much to ask for, they barely had enough to keep them fed. But … he still had twelve dollars, not enough for a full ticket but with the church discount he had enough … but then there would be nothing left for his mom, save two dollars.

He thought about it for a full minute before decided to give in, "That would be fun, I think I'll will go," for the first time he generally smiled.

"Awesome, we can walk home together and stop by the church to buy it," Xion replied enthusiastically.

"Yeah and just come to the church at five on Saturday, for a ride to the concert," Naminé explained.

* * *

Kairi walked into the apartment and tossed her keys onto the counter. Her stomach churned with anger, so she leaned again the wall with a groan feeling weak and frail. It had been almost three days since she had eaten a full meal, because he kept giving everything to her son. It was really starting to take a toll on her, "Just one more day, then I'll get a paycheck and can eat something," she told herself.

There was a knock on the door. _Oh God, it could be Riku again, trying to take Roxas_. She grabbed a knife, _if he makes one threat toward Roxas, I'll kill him._

The door knocked again, she walked over making sure to keep the knife out of site but still handy for a quick stab. She grabbed the knob and opened the door, but when she saw who it was the knife fell from her grasp landing on the floor with a thud.

"Kairi."

The woman made a choking sound, "Sora!" a dry sob fell from her lips, the one friend she thought she would never see again was standing at the doorstep, "Is it really you?"

She threw her arms around his neck in a hug. Sora hugged her back; he was completely shocked at how Kairi looked. To put it nicely she looked terrible, so frail and helpless. And when was the last time she ate. It couldn't have been recently, but that didn't matter she was alive. He got caught up in the moment and got all emotional, "Kairi I thought you were dead, why didn't you ever let me know that you were alive?"

"Because I was ashamed, I-" she couldn't say anymore because she broke down crying.

Sora held her gently, "It's ok … at least I know your ok."

The woman sniffed loudly, "Yes you're right, oh I'm sorry where are my manners, come on in." she let Sora into the apartment, "It's not much but its home."

"Oh no it's fine," Sora replied stepping in and looking around, realizing it was worse then he thought. "So … where's your kid, I mean you did-?"

"Oh Roxas's he's at school right now, or at least he was, schools out by now so he should be home soon."

"Roxas? That's an interesting name, how did you pick it?"

"I don't know, I just thought if the first time I looked at him."

Sora's smile eventually turned into a frown, "Well hate to say it Kairi, but your looking a little worse for wear."

Kairi blushed, but still smiled. Good old Sora, hasn't changed one bit, "Why don't I take you and Roxas to dinner tonight, you look like you could use a good meal."

"Oh thanks Sora, but we really couldn't-"

"Yes you can, and I will insist, don't try to argue with me girl. You never won when we were teens you think it will be any different now?"

Kairi smiled, and before she could reply the door opened and Roxas came in. He looked at Sora in confusion then at Kairi for answers, "Roxas this is my best friend Sora," Kairi told him.

"Hey there Roxas, it's nice to finally meet you," Sora greeted giving the boy a firm handshake.

"You know who I am?" Roxas asked.

Sora smiled sheepishly, "Well not exactly but I knew that your mom had a kid, just never knew who."

Roxas still looked at Sora with suspicion. If he was really a friend, then why had he not seen him in fourteen years? If this guy really was a friend of his mom, then he was no better then his dad. "Sora was kind enough to buy us dinner tonight," Kairi spoke up.

This changed Roxas's attitude almost instantly. As his stomach wrenched at the thought of a full meal for once, the little bit of pizza he had for lunch was not enough to satisfy. He smiled widely at Sora which made the man laugh, "Well that got acceptance, come on lets go now, I'll drive."

Kairi grabbed her keys, and Roxas put his backpack in his room before they all left. "Hey mom," Roxas asked Kairi as she was locking the door.

"Yes, honey?"

He had thought good and long about how he was going to ask his mom to go to the concert. As soon as he said the word concert she would ask where he got the money for a ticket, then she would ask how he was getting there, and Roxas knew that she wouldn't approve of going with a church. "I kind of got in trouble at school today and I have detention tomorrow after school," so he decided to lie.

"Oh Roxas what did you do this time," Roxas winced the disappointment in his moms voice.

"I just talked back to a teacher."

Kairi sighed as she finished locking the door, "Its ok, lets just forget about for now, we'll talk about it later."


	6. The Climax

The Climax

* * *

Roxas was sitting on his bed, trying to start his essay for English, he couldn't remember the last time he ate so much food at once. For once his stomach felt satisfied, Sora already left, promising his mom to come back the next day after she got off work. Even thought he didn't entirely trust Sora, he didn't really object to it. It would keep his mom occupied while he was at the concert, and she might not notice if he came back late.

He suddenly heard a knock on the door, and heard Kairi walk over to open it, while muttering, "Now who could this be, my parents coming back from the dead."

The door opened and Roxas heard a mans voice. "Hello my name is Axel-" that was all he was able to make out of the muffled voice It sounded familiar but he couldn't place the face. Then he heard his own name, which perked his curiosity enough to get up and see who it was. "- I just wanted to make sure he was alright," he heard the man say when he came out of the room.

He saw who was at the door; it was the creepy guy that hit him with the car. What was he doing here? "Hey there's the kid, and he looks like he's doing alright," the man said noticing him.

Kairi turned around to look at Roxas briefly then turned back to the man, "Yes, he's fine. I appreciate you coming by the check on him."

"Its no problem, I just didn't want you to think that I was just jerk that did a hit and run."

"Its fine, Roxas told me all about it. Thanks so much."

"So how are you doing Roxas?" The man asked him.

The blonde shrugged, "Ok I guess, um…" he paused not sure what his name was.

"Axel" he replied. "Well I guess I've taken up enough of your evening, so I'll go now."

"Ok, thanks again," Kairi replied then closed the door again, "That was very nice of him."

"Yeah …" Roxas was totally confused as to why a man he didn't even know was so concerned about him. I mean sure he hit him with his car but Roxas was totally fine and even ran away. If it was him that hit someone with a car and the person he hit seemed fine enough he'd forget about it. Maybe not everyone in this world was a complete jerk.

* * *

"Roxas!" Xion called waving to him as he approached the church.

The blonde smiled and waved back, picking up speed. "I'm glad you were able to make it," Xion said with a bright smile as he approached.

"This is going to be soooo awesome!" Tidas came up wrapping slapping his arms around both Roxas's and Xion's shoulders.

"Totally!" Xion replied equally excited.

Roxas could only smile weakly; he really wasn't sure how to react to this. He never expected a group of bible thumpers to act like this. Weren't Christians supposed to do nothing but go to church, read there bibles, do good things and pray to there God. But these guys were interested, they were in things that normal people were interested in, and going to a concert like normal people. And they were different somehow, they had something that he didn't.

"All right, load em up," someone suddenly called stopping his train of thought.

"Roxas, come in my car," Xion said and grabbed his hand pulling him toward a van.

They drove for a couple of hours listening to Organization XIII music all the way, until they reached Twilight Town, they stopped outside a mall and the driver turned around, "Ok we got about an hour and a half before the concert so be back here in an hour."

This was followed by many "ok's" and everyone filed out of the van, "What are we doing now?" Roxas asked Xion.

"We're just getting dinner, before we go to the concert," she replied while grabbing her wallet from her backpack.

The blonde felt his blood go cold at hearing this; he didn't have any money for dinner. Now he would have to watch everyone else eat, when he hadn't eaten anything all day. "I guess it could be worse," he mumbled to himself. He had practically lived his whole life never eating a full meal, actually the dinner last night was the first he had since he could remember. He had gone into the cafeteria to watch people eat when he had no feed, so he could handle this also.

He followed Xion, and a couple of her friends to the food court in the mall. They were contemplating where to eat, "Roxas, I can't decide, were are you going to go?" she suddenly asked him.

"Oh I'm not getting anything."

Xion gave him a confused look, "Why, aren't you hungry?"

His stomach suddenly growled, which made him blush. There was no use lying about it now, "Yeah, but I don't have any money."

"Oh well you should have said something. I'll buy you food," she offered.

"No that's ok," Roxas wouldn't stand for it; Sora already bought him food last night. His mom always said that you shouldn't let people buy you stuff, you get stuff by your own doing.

"It's no problem really."

"No, I won't be able to pay you back."

"Now I don't care about that, come on your obviously hungry," the girl continued to insist.

"No-"

"Oh stop being a prideful jerk, and let me buy you dinner." Now how could he argue with that?

* * *

Kairi got out of her car, outside of her apartment building. Having just gotten off work, she noticed Sora was waiting in his car for her, and smiled knowingly. "Stalker much," she teased when they approached.

Sora smiled sheepishly, "I had only been waiting a few minutes, just got here a little early."

The woman laughed and led there way up to the apartment, "So is Roxas still at school?" Sora asked casually as Kairi opened her front door and let them in.

"Yes, but he won't be back until late. He got in trouble at school again and had to stay after school."

"So that means we have to day to ourselves," Sora commented.

Kairi smiled seductively at him, "Its true, and I just got my paycheck so we can do whatever we want."

Sora held up his hands in surrender, "Easy there girl, don't get too excited, remember how that kid of yours was created. You don't need another one," he joked.

A smirk crossed her face, "Same old Sora."

"I still can't believe that you're alive Kairi. I looked for you for years, then eventually gave up believing that you were dead."

"Then what brought you to try and find me again, in fact how did you find me? If you really did give up, then why would you try and find me again?"

"Well Riku told me that he found you."

The woman scoffed, scowling at the mention of her former lover's name, "That asshole."

"Come on Kairi, don't talk like that. You should know better," Sora replied lightly.

She scoffed again, "Oh Sora, don't tell me that your still doing that bible thing."

"You were doing it also, once before."

"I was young and stupid back them, I know better now. Nothing but fairytales, all that crap is; there's no God out there."

"Kairi how do you think you even got this far in life?"

"By hard work!" Kairi suddenly shouted getting defensive, "That's the reason, I'm still alive. Because I worked hard. Nothing is ever given to you, it's earned."

"And you think giving birth to a child at fourteen, with no complications whatsoever was just a coincidence?" Sora's voice started to raise also.

Kairi scoffed yet again, she hadn't thought about that in almost fourteen years. "God was watching over you then and he still is now. He's the reason you've gotten this far, he provided you with the strength to work hard."

The red head was no longer looking at him, she didn't like where this conversation was going, "Sora," her voice was once again calm, just barely above a whisper, "I don't want to fight with you. Can't we just forget about it?"

She heard the man sigh, "Why don't we go out to the store and try to fill that refrigerator of yours. Seeming you have a paycheck now."

"That's sounds like a good idea, and then we can go pick up Roxas from school and make a fabulous feast. I'm his mother; I can get him out of detention."

* * *

It was about 12:30 in the morning when the cars showed up at the church. They stayed out much longer then Roxas had expected, the concert ended at nine and he expected to be back by ten, eleven at the latest. But there was so much after concert activities on, they stayed forever. Not that Roxas complained, he lost track of the time, not to mention he still had to walk home. This meant he'd be home at 1:00 at the earliest, so he could only hope that his mom and Sora were where having so much fun at the apartment that she didn't notice that he never came home.

That was a lot of hope; he was most likely in huge trouble right about now. Knowing how much Kairi worried about him, she was sure to notice that he never came home. As everyone filed out of the van, everyone either went to there own cars to drive home or, for those that didn't have a license, ran to there parents car's who were waiting to pick them up.

Roxas started heading down the sidewalk, but he didn't make it very far before he heard a voice call him name, "Roxas where are you going!"

He turned around to see who called, it was Xion which didn't surprise him at all, "I'm just walking home."

"By yourself? It's too late for you to be walking home by yourself, why don't you find a ride."

Roxas shook his head in decline, "No that's ok, I'm used to walking home alone."

"No it's too late, I wouldn't feel right letting you go by yourself. Come with me, I'm sure my dad wouldn't mind giving you a ride," Xion ran over to a car and knocked on the front door window. The window went down and he spoke for a few moments, then turned back to him with a smile, "Its fine Roxas come on."

There was no way Roxas was going to let Xion see where he lived, so he told her dad to drop him off at a more expensive apartment complex, even farther away from his house then the church was. But it was better making her believe that he lived in slight luxury then the dump he lived in now. He waited until they drove away before starting to walk back to his home, at this rate he wouldn't be home until probably 1:30.

The walk seemed to go on forever, and as he got deeper and deeper into the ghetto's Roxas started to get the feeling that he was being followed. He mentally shook the feeling off as just his imagination. Though he went stiff as he heard a sudden noise, then turned around looking in all directions. He heard the noise again, and that was all the encouragement he needed to get out of there as fast as he could. He took off into a bolt, not looking where he was going and ran into a tall figure.

Roxas looked up into the face that must have been the devil, who grabbed his arm. A shrill scream came from the boy's mouth, and he didn't even care that it sounded like a girl. "Whoa easy there kid, I'm not going to hurt you," the figure said trying to calm the struggling teen, who didn't listen and continued to pull away while making panicky noises.

"Roxas?"

The boy stopped struggling at the sound of his own name, and he looked up again at the figure. This _Devil_ turned out to be none other then Axel, why the heck did he keep showing up. "A-Axel?" he stammered.

"You need to start watching where you're going in a hurry. Good thing I didn't have my car this time," Axel joked.

Roxas didn't laugh, but continued to stare at the man in confusion, "What heck are you doing around here, so late? Don't you know this is a dangerous part of town?"

"I was just going home."

"Well you shouldn't be walking home all by yourself, this late. Come on, I'm going to take you home," Axel left no room for argument.

The car ride was silent, not that either had much to say. And Roxas was still trying to get over the fright he had, he couldn't remember ever feeling so scared in his life. Axel dropped him off in front of the apartment building. Roxas suddenly wondered what Axel was doing walking around in the middle of night, but by the time his thought process came to asking him, the car was already driving away.

With a sigh, the blonde headed up the stairs to there room. Hopefully his mom was asleep and he could save the yelling he knew was coming for tomorrow. But no such luck, as soon as he walked he saw in Kairi and Sora sitting on the couch. His mom at once jumped to her feet and sprinted over to him, "Young man where have you been?" she asked sounding very angry.

It's a good thing Roxas thought of a lie ahead of time, "Well I was as school, when-"

"Don't you dare lie to me, I know you weren't at school!" she interrupted.

Roxas gawked at her, he thought his plan was fool proof. How did she find out, "I went by you school and no one knew anything about you to be there."

The boy lowered his head, he never expected her to come to the school. She's never done it before, though he should have thought about it. "Do you have any idea how worried I was? Where were you all day?"

There was no use in lying, not anymore he was in enough trouble already. "I went to a concert."

"A concert?" Kairi's eyes narrowed, "Where the hell did you get the money to go to a concert. I swear if you stole money or snuck in-"

"I didn't do either, ok!" Roxas shouted outraged that his mom would accuse him of such a thing.

"Then how did you pay for it!"

"I found some money ok, it was lying on a deserted street. I didn't steal it, and why can't I have any fun. Just because you work your life away you don't want me to-" SLAP!

Roxas was suddenly cut off when Kairi slapped him in the face, "Don't you dare talk to me that way. Go to your room right now, your grounded."

The boy touched his face gingerly where his mother slapped him, then turned and ran into his dark room slamming the door behind him. He slapped the light switch by the door only to have nothing happen, his lights weren't working. He growled in frustration, kicking at his wall, and then going to light a candle on his dresser. He often had to do this because his light chronically acted up. After he lighted the candle and the room brightened he over heard what his mom and Sora were saying.

"Don't you think you were a little hard on him," Sora was saying.

"I know- I- I lost my temper," Kairi said sounded like she was about to cry. "It's just that- ever since Riku came back … I've been afraid. I thought that- I thought- I thought that he kidnapped Roxas…" after this sobs were heard.

Roxas felt about an inch tall at the moment, he never meant to worry his mom so much. Angry surged inside of him as he thought about Riku … that jackass of a father was ruining there lives. He tensed up balling his hands together; he needed to take his anger out of something.

"Ok I'll walk you out to your car," he overheard his mom say, a moment later the door opened and closed meaning he was alone in the apartment.

In a final attempt to fume his anger he grabbed his comb from the dresser and chucked it at the wall. That felt really good, so he continued this grabbing every odd and end on his dresser and throwing it at the wall. He got rougher and rougher with each thing he tossed. Finally with a roar of rage he high kicked at the dresser making it topple over which collided with tall bookshelf and fell right into the door completely blocking entrance and exit.

The candle that he lit fell also and as soon as it hit the ground his school notes caught fire. Roxas watched the glowing flames hypnotically, as they got bigger and bigger. Though he didn't care, for some reason the sight of it calmed him. He slowly took steps backward until the back of his knees hit his bed, then he sat down continuing to watch the growing blaze.

* * *

"Thanks for staying with me Sora," Kairi thanked. She and Sora were standing by his car, and had been talking for a few minutes.

"It's no problem, that's what friends are for," Sora replied kindly, and the two hugged warmly. "And don't worry about Riku. There's no way he can ever take that kid away from you."

"I hope so, if anything ever happened to Roxas- I don't know what I'd do."

"Everything's going to be fine, don't worry. You might want to go talk to him when you get back up there."

"Maybe tomorrow, he's probably gone to bed by now."

Sora kissed her on the cheek, and the two said there good byes. Kairi waved at his retreating car, and didn't head back up to the apartment until it was out of sight. As soon as she walked inside, she immediately detected the smell of smoke. It was coming from Roxas's room. "Roxas? Honey what are you doing there?" she called knocking on his door before turning the doorknob and trying to open it.

She only found that the door was being blocked by something. A horrible feeling came over her, "Roxas!" she called and when he didn't answer she started banging on the door with her fist. "Roxas open the door!" she screamed. When she heard the sound of crackling flames terror seized her heart, "Roxas! Roxas!" she stared shouldering the door but it was no use she just wasn't strong enough the to break through what was pinning it close.

A sob escaped her lips; she didn't know what to do. Sora was gone, and it was in the middle of the night. There was only one thing to do. She ran over to the phone dialed a number and put it to her ear.

_911 what's your emergency?_ …

* * *

**hehe, I'm so mean leaving you all with a cliff hanger.**


	7. The Gloom

The Gloom

* * *

Roxas slowly felt himself coming back to consciousness, he was lying in bed though he wasn't sure whose bed was. It wasn't his, he knew that for sure, and he found breathing to be quite painful. Every time he inhaled, it was a huge strain on his lungs. He forced his heavy eyelids to open, and was blinded by the plain white walls. Certainly not his room, he'd never allow his walls to be so plain. Then for the first time he noticed the beeping sound.

_Beep…beep…beep…_

The beeping of a heart monitor, he was in the hospital. But why? He looked around straining his brain in search for answers. A tickle in his throat caused a coughing fit, this is when he truly felt how scratchy, raw, and burned his throat was. And going by how bad it hurt to breathe it probably wasn't just his throat, it must have been deep in his lungs. It suddenly all came back to him. The concert, coming back home to his worried mother… the fire…

He looked up as the room door opened, and his mom came in. "Oh God Roxas, thank goodness your alright," she ran over and hugged him gently then looked at him with a soft glare. "Are you trying to scare the living daylights out of me? How many more things are you going to do before I have a heart attack?"

The blonde lowered his head in shame. He never meant to worry his mom so much, he never meant for anything of this to happen. "I'm sorry mom, I really am," he choked while tears leaked from his eyes.

At that moment a doctor looking more like he should work in a funeral parlor, "Hello ma'am, I'm doctor Vexen," he replied very monotone like.

"Hello," Kairi replied straitening out and extending a hand that the doctor didn't take.

"Your son should be fine, he does have mild smoke inhalation. I'm writing you a prescription for some antibiotics that you can pick up from your pharmacy," he wrote something down on a piece of paper and handed to her. "You can take him home anytime."

The doctor turned and left the room just as two other men came in. "Ma'am need to have a word with you," one of them told his mom.

"Oh course," Kairi replied, "You go ahead and get dressed Roxas, I'll be back." She kissed him on the forehead and left the room with them.

Just as Kairi left a nurse came in and took the I.V. out of his arm. After a few minutes Roxas was dressed in his street clothes and getting ready to leave the room. He felt so much better now that he was without that I.V. and hospital gown. He walked out of the room glancing around to where Kairi was, when two police officer's approached him, "Roxas?" one of them asked.

"Um… yeah," what did he do?

"You're going to have to come with us son."

"NO! NO!" Before Roxas could reply his attention turned toward the other end of the hallway, where his mom was screaming and trying desperately to run toward him but was being held back by the first two guys that came into the room. "NO! You can't do this! You can't take my son from me!" she screeched.

By the time Roxas realized what was happening, one of the police officer's grabbed his arm and started pulling him in the other direction. He reacted immediately, "NO! MOM! MOM!" he cried while struggling to get away. But the officer that held him was strong and with two of them, neither had trouble dragging him out of the hospital. "Let go of me! MOM! MOM!"

"NO! ROXAS! NO-"

That was the last he heard from her as they exited out of the hospital. Roxas struggled wildly as he was led to a police car. One of the officers's opened the back seat door while the other put pressure on his blonde spicks in order to force him into the car. Then the door was slammed shut. The boy pounded on the window since there were no latches on the inside there was no way he could get out. The officer's got into the front and driver's seat, and he kicked the metal divider that was between them. "If you dare to take me to the asshole I call a father then I'll kill him. I swear to God you make me live with him, and I _will_ kill him."

* * *

Sora walked up to Kairi's apartment, he was starting to wonder if he should just check into a hotel for a few nights, all of long drives were wasting gas. He immediately knew something was wrong, when he approached the apartment door and heard loud sobs coming from inside. "Kairi," he called knocking on the door.

When he got no answer, he decided to let himself in since it was unlocked. Kairi was sitting at the table with her head buried into her folded arms sobbing hysterically. At the corner of his vision he saw the burnt remains of Roxas's room. Something horrible must have happened. "Kairi what's wrong, what happened?" he asked rushing over to her shaking figure and placing an arm around her.

"Oh Sora!" Kairi looked at him with a flushed tear stained face as a result of what must have been hours of sobbing harshly. "He did it! That bastard did it!"

The woman threw herself into Sora's arms and cried onto his shoulder. The man ran a hand over her back, "Its ok Kairi calm down," he cooed.

"NO! NO! It's no ok!"

"Tell me what happened. Who did what?"

"Riku took Roxas!"

To say the least Sora was shocked, though in the back of his mind he wondered why. It did seem like something his old friend would do, but for some reason he never thought he's actually do it, "Well did you call the police, he won't be able to get away with kidnapping?"

"No… that's the worst part… he did it legally!"

Sora sat down at the table next to her, now utterly confused, "Ok you better tell me the whole story."

The woman sniffled loudly and wiped her eyes before starting, "Last night after you left. Roxas started a fire in his room."

"I guess that explains that," Sora pointed in the direction of the charred room, still smelling of smoke.

"Yes… somehow his bookshelf blocked the door so I couldn't get in. I called 911 but by the time they got here, and broke in Roxas lying on the bed passed out from smoke inhalation," she paused to blow her nose, then sniffled again. "Riku must have reported me, because social services got wind of me and Roxas… they thought I wasn't fit to take care of him… so they came to the hospital and said that in the best interest of the child he should be taken to live with someone that could afford to take care of him. His Father!" she broke down crying again. "A-And t-th-ey took him away!"

Sora firmly grabbed a hold of the woman's arms, "Kairi look at me," he ordered firmly and didn't continue until she was. "We're going to fight this; Riku had no right doing what he did. Especially since he never did a single thing for you while raising him."

"I can't Sora, I don't have money for a lawyer or anything!" Kairi sobbed.

"I have a good lawyer, he can win any case. Don't worry Kairi, I'm not going to let anyone take that kid away from you."

"W-What are you going to do, he's probably already on his way to Riku's."

"Just leave it to me."

* * *

Roxas was taken to the police station and locked into a room, which he had been locked in for hours. Every so often someone would peak there head in to ask if he was hungry or thirsty. And the one time they did bring him anything thing it was a dry sandwich and water. It was like he was no better then a criminal, when were they going to let him out. He spent much of the time figuring out how exactly he was going to kill that jackass that called himself his father.

He didn't care what happened to him, if they insisted on making him live with that bastard then sometime in the near future his father would be mysteriously murdered and he would disappear never to be seen again. He heard the jiggle of the door again signaling that someone was about to come in. A policewoman stuck her head in, "Son, your guardian is here. Time to go?"

It was about time, he wouldn't do it right away, he would wait a few days before actually doing the kill. He was still considering whether to be on the run of the rest of his life or just put himself out of his misery. Both didn't seem very tempting but after committing a murder on your own father, he knew he could have to choose one.

He was brought out to the main hallway and saw the last person he ever expected to see, "Sora?"

"Hi Roxas, you ready to go?" the man asked.

"I thought I was going to live with my father," Roxas was now thoroughly confused.

"Not yet, not if I have anything to say about it, but come on I'll explain on the way."

They were just about to walk out of the doors when police officer stopped him, "Sir, you do know that your not allowed to take him out of Hallow Bastion?"

"Yes I understand," Sora replied politely, "I have a room in a hotel that I'm staying at."

Roxas waited until they were both in the car before asking, "So what's going on, where's my mom?"

"Your mothers at home, after she told me what happened I called my lawyer to help us. He pulled some strings and showed social services that Riku never did a thing to help in the past so he has no right to take you. Now there's going to be a trial for your custody next week, in the meantime I have temporary custody of you until the trial. And both your mother and father have no visitation rights until the trial."

Roxas didn't know what to say, Sora at least wasn't as bad as Riku. But he'd much rather live with his mom. But at least there was still a chance that he'd be able to go back and live with her. "Don't worry Roxas; I'm on your side. My lawyer has never lost a case before, and I don't think he'll start now."

Roxas nodded silently, it was only a week until the trial. He could handle that, "We need to stop by the pharmacy and pick up your antibiotics before we go to the hotel," Sora announced turning into a grocery store that had a pharmacy. Roxas nodded without word and silently followed Sora into the store. He sat on a bench waited patiently for Sora at the pharmacy. Though when he heard the pharmacists tell them that they would have to wait a half hour for the pills to be ready he knew that they'd be here for awhile.

"I guess we can get some shopping done while were waiting," Sora suggested trying to find the good in a bad situation.

"I'll wait here," Roxas announced not wanting to get up and walk around.

Sora nodded with a sigh but still looked sympathetic, it make him sick. He always made sure not to tell anyone about his tragic life because he hated those empty sympathetic looks he would get. He sat there scowling by himself while Sora was walking around the store shopping. "I'm sorry ma'am, but your short one dollar," he suddenly started observing the woman that was buying some medicine at the pharmacy counter.

"Oh I'm sorry," the woman said and started searching through her purse hastily. After a few moments he looked back up at the cashier helplessly, "I don't have another dollar."

"Then I'm sorry, I can't sell you this," the cashier said and started talking back the medicine.

The woman placed a hand on the meds to stop him, "No, please you don't understand. My daughter is sick, she has a 105 fever I need this medicine."

"I'm sorry ma'am but unless you give me another dollar I can't sell you this."

"I don't have any money, and I have no credit, please."

Roxas couldn't stand it anymore, it was a freaking dollar, and the store probably got trillions of dollars every day. But they couldn't spear a dollar to help out a woman with a sick child. He still had two dollars left, so he went up to the woman and gave her one of them, "Here ma'am, I think you can use this," he said.

The woman looked at him like he just gave her the keys to the city, "Oh, bless you son, thank you so much."

Roxas smiled to himself, he knew that he had done a good thing and felt good about it. Not in a smug way, but in a truly good way that he just help out someone that was in need. He looked down at the rest of the cash he had, one dollar left, wasn't much he could do with it. But he'd save it anyway, and stuck it back into his pocket.

* * *

Sora had gotten a two bed room at the local hotel, after they got his prescription Sora stopped by his and his mom's apartment to get his clothes. He had to wait in the car because according to law he wasn't allowed any contact with either of his parents until the trial. The boy hung his head in shame when he noticed that Sora was able to get all his stuff on one trip, he didn't have much.

Roxas on the queen size bed while Sora took a shower in the bathroom, sleeping tonight would be like sleeping in a palace compared to what he was used to. I sigh escaped his lips; he would probably sleep better tonight then any other night in his life, but he'd give it all up just to be back with his mom and a chance to never see that bastard of a father again. He looked around the small hotel room, and noticed on the bedside table was a bible. A scowl formed on his face, Sora was a bible thumper. Wait a second, what was he getting so upset about?

Roxas started to realize that the bible thumpers maybe weren't as bad as he thought. They were different then everyone else, they made him feel loved. Not loved like in a relationship, but loved like in a family. But that was impossible; he was a bastard one only a mother could love.

His train of thought was halted by Sora emerging from the bathroom toweling his brown spikes, "Hey Roxas, how are you doing?" he asked looking at him sympathetically.

Just that one look made Roxas's eyes narrow with anger; he hated those sympathetic looks with a passion. It made him feel like he was a poor helpless animal that had an abusive owner and that he needed rescuing. The blonde glared mildly at him and looked away. Sora just sighed in response understand how hard this must be for him, "Are you hungry at all?"

"No," Roxas replied shortly, then after a few moments he said, "That asshole, I hope he burns in hell." Both knew he was referring to Riku.

"Sora sighed, "Roxas I know that you're angry, but we both need to come to an understanding. While you're staying with me, I won't tolerate that language and _will_ punish you if I have to."

Roxas shot a weak glare at him which died quickly, "Yes sir…"

* * *

"Roxas... Roxas slow down!" Xion called from down the hallway trying to catch up with the blonde who seemed to be avoiding her.

Once again he acted as if he didn't hear her, but she knew that he did by the way he picked up his pace. Xion knew that something was wrong, he seemed to have a great time at the concert then after the weekend is over he's avoiding her. What happened? Did she do something to make him angry? She picked up her speed and started to gain on him, "Roxas, please stop and tell me what's wrong!" she called.

Roxas then went into a run and turned into the boys bathroom, "Dang it," Xion swore as she stopped in front of the bathroom door and caught her breath. "You can't hide forever!" she called through the door and leaned against the wall. "I'll be waiting right here for you."

She waited a few minutes then the bell rang for next period, so now she had to leave. With a sigh she realized that she should probably just mind her own business, until he was ready to talk and left without a word.

Kairi was at Cators doing her job, but now really in the mood for it. All that was on her mind now was Roxas, and what he was doing right now. She was so worried about him that he was barely concentrating. Three times she had giving the wrong change, and more then once she had absentmindedly rung everything up twice. It wasn't long before she got a verbal dress down from the owner because someone complained.

"Kairi what's wrong with you?" her friend Alice asked her after the owner was finished and left the red head feeling about an inch tall.

"I don't know," Kairi replied choking back sobs.

"Kairi, you're not on break, back to work now," the owner ordered harshly. Everyone knew that the owner was a jerk, and was especially toward Kairi because he knew that Kairi would do anything to keep her job. So he knew that he could ask and do whatever he wanted to her and she wouldn't complain.

The woman composed herself then went back to her register to continue working. She rang up clothes for about a half hour when she saw a familiar face, "Sora!" she called out gratefully.

Her old friend approached her, smiling sympathetically. Kairi eagerly finished ringing up the guest then ran over and hugged him, "Roxas? How is he, is he ok?" she asked.

"He's find, stop worrying," Sora replied gently, "He's safe at school."

Kairi buried her face into his jacket, trying to force back the tears that threatened to fall, "I don't know if I can handle this, if Riku wins the case I'll die."

"Kairi, what did I promise you? No ones going to take him away, I got you the best lawyer in the country."

"Kairi! Kairi! I didn't send you on a break! What the hell do you think your doing?" The owner yelled at her.

The red head looked back at him taken aback, "I'm having some personal problems right now. Give me a break already!" she yelled at him, it was the first time she had ever stood up to him.

The owner wasn't looking to happy about her reply, "Get back on that register right now, and I'll forget about what you just said," he replied in a low dangerous voice.

Kairi just glared furiously at him, she had been putting up with this crap for far too long. "Look here buster! I've been working for you as a single parent, barely making enough to survive in this world. You have been making me bust my butt for years and I've never once heard a 'thank-you' so you know what? I'm not taking it anymore!" she screamed at him then jabbed a finger at his chest, "You don't deserve me so, so I QUIT!"

With this she took off her name tag, handed it to the owner then marched out in a righteous huff. She barely even noticed the other employees and costumer's cheering as she left with Sora following close behind, "Kairi are you sure you should have done that?" Sora asked her when they were outside the store.

"I don't even care anymore, I just want Roxas."

"Being unemployed won't look very good before a jury."

Kairi halted mid step, "Your right," she choked then turned around, "I better go back and beg for my job back."

Sora stopped her before she made a step, "No Kairi don't, your life's degrading enough don't make it worse. Its done, going back will only make you look weak."

"What do I do now?" the woman finally let the tears flow freely and buried her face into Sora's chest.

Sora embraced her in a light hug, "We'll figure it out, I promise."

* * *

Roxas was walking down the hallway heading to his next class, he had been avoiding all human contact as much at possible. He felt bad about shunning Xion but she was someone he especially wanted to avoid. His thoughts were interrupted by a sudden scream then turned his head into the direction of the scream. It was another girl getting attacked again, and he rolled his eyes why didn't anyone do anything about this.

He was passing by just like everyone else when he noticed that the girl looked familiar. Sudden anger filled him as he realized that it was Xion, it was almost a foreign feeling. He had never cared before, what was the different now? The teen that was attacking Xion shoved her against the lockers hard enough to make her head fly back and bang against the medal with a loud CLANG! She cried out in pain, then as the boy secured her arms and snaked and his other arms under her shirt. She screamed out in terror, and that was when Roxas realized that the reason he cared was because he loved her. And seeing this happen to her made him see red.

As if someone else controlled his body, Roxas ran over to them and pushed the teen out of the way before he could do anything else to Xion, "Leave her alone!" he ordered firmly.

The boy stumbled backwards, while Xion crumbled to her knees in shock at being saved. "Hey what's your deal man?" he asked Roxas.

"Roxas!" Xion shouted when she realized that he saved her.

Both boys ignored her cry, "You bastard!" Roxas swore then swung his fist at the boy while it contacted with his jaw followed by a sickening Crack!

The other boy held his jaw briefly then glared at the blonde, "You're a dead man," he threatened then punched Roxas in the gut.

The blonde doubled over, as his breath was stolen from his lungs. "Hey look a fight!" some stand-by shouted and it wasn't long before there was a crowd of students cheering and hooting at them.

Roxas quickly composed himself then shoved the other teen against the lockers and landed two hard punches at his cheeks so hard that it was making his own fists hurt. "Roxas stop!" Xion pleaded helplessly but they both continued to ignore her.

The other teen regained his balance and jumped at Roxas making them both fall to the ground, his fist made contact with the blondes blue eye making pain sprout through his face. Roxas kneed him right where it hurts, not enough to cause much damage but enough to throw his opponent off enough to roll over so he was on top then landed his own punch. "Just stop it!" he was dimly aware of Xion's plea's for them to stop.

Both boys continued to fight and punch each other, each getting a verity of cuts and bruises, "What's going on here!" the hallway went silence and there fighting ceased as the principal's voice cut through the cheers.

At that particular moment the other teen was on top of Roxas so the head of the school grabbed his jacket and lifted him off the blonde. Roxas was now able to get up on his own, the principal glared at them both, "So care to explain?" he asked in a stony voice.

Roxas didn't want to explain, he didn't want to do anything. He didn't care if he was kicked out of school, he didn't care about anything anymore. So he took running, and ran out of the door and out of the school, he just didn't care anymore. "Roxas! Roxas!" no one stopped Xion when she ran after him.

* * *

**I'm just letting you all know that I dont know anything about the law. So I'm guess on pretty much everything other then some shows I watch and what I see in movies. Though it is fanfiction and this world isn't our world so I can get away with it hehe**


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